Director Tomasz Golka conducts the Riverside County Philharmonic during the Concert for Heroes at Riverside National Cemetery in July. The philharmonic, one of the Inland area's only professional orchestras, has seen revenues decline and is appealing to the community to stay afloat.

Joseph Telezinski, president of the Riverside County Philharmonic's board of directors, shown at a concert in September. The philharmonic, one of the Inland area's only professional orchestras, has seen revenues decline and is appealing to the community to stay afloat.

Dealing with a 30 percent revenue drop from one year to the next would be a challenge for any organization, but it’s been especially hard on the Riverside County Philharmonic, where the largest chunk of annual income is from private donations.

That precipitous drop happened to the philharmonic, one of the Inland area’s only professional orchestras, between 2008 and 2009. After several years of belt-tightening, generosity by philharmonic board members and hoping things would get better, classical music supporters are now turning to the community for help.

“When we first took that hit, I don’t think anybody realized that was the new level we were going to be at,” said Joseph Telezinski, a Riverside lawyer who is president of the philharmonic’s board of directors. “I think they were hoping it would rebound.”

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But it hasn’t. Revenues were more than $880,000 in 2008, and this year they’re projected at $603,000. So Telezinski and other supporters are trying some new things — a ticketing partnership with the Redlands Symphony and writing a fresh business plan. They also are revisiting some old methods by holding a holiday fundraiser and talking to community groups.

Beyond those efforts, the Riverside-based, regional orchestra is putting its fate in the hands of residents who have helped keep it going for 54 seasons.

“I want to do what the community wants us to do,” Telezinski said. “If the community feels that we have value, … we need the community’s support.”

FINANCIAL STRUGGLES

The Riverside County Philharmonic, founded in 1959, puts on about four concerts a year with a regular roster of professional musicians who make their living by working for multiple groups, teaching and playing for hire at events such as the Academy Awards.

Telezinski and Barbara Lohman, the Riverside County Philharmonic’s executive director, said they think the economy is mostly to blame for the orchestra’s financial straits. People haven’t been able to donate as much because of hard times, they said. Lohman added that costs for groups such as theirs go up annually.

Also, when the Riverside Municipal Auditorium closed for renovations in 2010, the philharmonic had to move to the Fox Performing Arts Center. It’s undeniably a beautiful performance space, Lohman said, but even at the city’s special nonprofit rate, the move about doubled their rental costs.

Such a forced venue change may be uncommon, but the orchestra’s financial struggles aren’t.

In the past several years, orchestras in Syracuse and Honolulu have closed, Philadelphia’s orchestra filed for bankruptcy, and just this month the Brooklyn Philharmonic was seeking a financial partner, according to news reports.

“The economic downturn definitely affected many organizations around the country,” said Rachelle Schlosser, spokeswoman for the New York-based League of American Orchestras. “There are also other factors at play. There has been a real change in classical music participation and attendance.”

Each organization has its own issues, and for the Riverside County Philharmonic, a shrinking audience is not one of them. Ticket sales have been relatively stable, officials said.

But Schlosser said many orchestras are facing the challenge of appealing to changing audience tastes and demographics that want more interactive performances and music beyond the usual classical canon.

Some orchestras have tried new ways of pricing tickets, commissioning pieces with jazz and rock influences, and offering special “tweet seats,” where patrons can use their cell phones to share what’s happening at a concert with real-time commentary via Twitter.

ENGAGED AUDIENCE

The Riverside County Philharmonic is planning some innovations to generate interest, but it still needs a certain amount of cash. Current and past board members have either donated or loaned the organization about $225,000 in the past two years.

Lohman and Telezinski said officials have done what they could to cut costs, reducing their staff from about three full-timers to one, cutting salaries, staging concerts with fewer musicians and cutting back on guest artists. But there’s not much more to trim.

Telezinski said when people come to a performance, “you don’t expect to show up and see a half empty stage. … There’s not a lot more cuts that can be made and still present a professional orchestra, a season of music to this community.”

Orchestra officials and supporters said they think the community will come through for them as it has in the past. With some last-minute assistance, the philharmonic avoided having to cancel its Saturday, Nov. 30, concert, a fundraiser is planned in early December, and they’ll be sending an appeal to past donors soon.

Eileen Holt, the philharmonic’s principal flute player, said besides the camaraderie of the musicians, a supportive community was one of the reasons she has stuck with the group for 18 years.

At concerts, Riverside audiences seem engaged in the performance and often give standing ovations, she said.

“They appreciate the arts in this community very much and they show their appreciation during a concert,” Holt said.

Riverside resident Bob Gillis counts himself among the appreciative.

He and his wife have been catering meals from their Chino pizzeria to feed the orchestra before shows for at least five years, most of that time as an in-kind donation.

It’s especially important to support music in the community now, because it has suffered deep cuts in the schools, he said.

“I’m very proud that I do that,” Gillis said. “I think that appreciation of the arts is important for a well-rounded community.”

Telezinski said outreach to youth is one of the ways the philharmonic benefits the community beyond those who attend its concerts. Its musicians visit local schools to play and talk about music with students.

And there’s the economic benefit of jobs for musicians and spending by concert-goers who stop for dinner or drinks on concert nights, he noted. Having a professional orchestra also says something about the community’s commitment to the arts, Telezinski and others agreed.

“I don’t believe that orchestras are dead,” he said. “I think music is going to continue to be important.”

Follow Alicia Robinson on Twitter: @arobinson_pe or online at http://blog.pe.com/author/arobinson/

HOLIDAY CONCERT

WHAT: Seasonal music from the Riverside County Philharmonic and La Sierra University Chamber Singers

Alicia Robinson covers Anaheim for The Orange County Register. She previously spent 10 years at The Press-Enterprise writing about Riverside and local government as well as Norco, Corona, homeless issues, Alzheimer's disease, streetcars, butterflies, horses and chickens. She grew up in the Midwest but earned Southern California native status during many hours spent in traffic. Two big questions Alicia tries to answer in stories about government are: how is it supposed to work, and how is it working?